Ukraine's deputy prime minister says it is educating its citizens about the dangers of deepfakes as it fights Russian disinformation in 'a war of technologies'

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister & Minister of Digital Transformation.

Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Getty Images

• Ukraine's vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, spoke at the Tech Power and Cooperation panel in Davos.
• He said Ukraine had seen a lot of Russian propaganda and deepfakes, so educated citizens about it.
• Fedorov called for a "digital blockade" to "throw Russia back many years into the past."

Ukraine is giving its citizens a digital education to help fight against Russian deepfakes and propaganda, according to the country's vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov.

He spoke on the Tech Power and Cooperation panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday, where topics included the potential dangers of facial recognition technology.

Fedorov, who is also the minister of digital transformation, said: "We saw a lot of Russian propaganda and we saw a lot of deepfakes." 

"And of course what helps is the digital education, because we're teaching Ukrainians digital literacy so they could differentiate true information from the fake one – so they could analyze the information."

Fedorov explained how Ukraine used AI to create electronic signatures based on facial recognition, before realizing that there was a risk this could let Russia create deepfakes.

"So we introduced additional instruments to combat that. As it stands today, the fraud or mistakes that may be, they're 0%," he added. "We don't have any abuse of electronic signatures."

"What I'm trying to say here is it's a war of technologies," Fedorov added. "When a revolutionary technology is large, a new technology also appears that wants to harm this."

Fedorov also spoke about how facial recognition allowed Ukraine to identify dead Russian soldiers and inform their families. Reuters reported last March that Ukraine was receiving free access to the technology from the American company Clearview AI. 

Fedorov added that AI had also allowed Ukraine to target its drone strikes on Russian tanks more precisely  Tech companies like Mastercard, Apple and Paypal pulling their services in Russia had been a big help as well. 

"It's important that a digital blockade should happen, that tech companies leave Russia. By doing so, they throw Russia back many years into the past," Fedorov said. 

"At the same time, these companies help us to be more agile, more convenient, more effective, and win."

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